Technologies

Anyone Can Now Access the Largest Space Map Ever Created. Here’s How

The data includes a map of nearly 800,000 galaxies and covers 0.54 square degrees of the sky.

If you’ve ever wanted a better look at deep space, you now have your chance. A treasure trove of data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope is now available for public consumption. Included with the data is an interactive map that contains nearly 800,000 galaxies and various filters so you can view them in different ways.

The data was made available starting on June 5 by the Cosmic Evolution Survey out of Caltech. It consists of survey data that mapped out 0.54 square degrees of the sky. For reference, if you take a look at this month’s strawberry moon, the amount of sky that the telescope mapped is equivalent to about three full moons side by side. The total size of all the map data is about 1.5 TB.

Read more: Coolest Space Photos of 2025 Will Fill You With Cosmic Wonder

Included in the map are galaxies and stars that are 13.5 billion years old, which means it provides the best look into the early universe that science has offered so far. NASA estimates that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, so those galaxies and stars are positively ancient. In all, there are galaxies and stars in the data that cover about 98% of the known universe’s history.

That makes this newly released map bigger than the largest Milky Way galaxy map ever created, which still only covers a small slice of the galaxy’s overall layout. However, the Milky Way galaxy map is still larger in terms of data, as that map is over 500 TB in size.

Researchers mapped the sky with the JWST’s near infrared camera, and 0.2 square degrees of the sky were mapped with the mid infrared instrument. In total, there’s about 1.5 TB worth of data to sift through. Arguably the coolest part of the info dump is the interactive map, which loads in a web browser and allows users to move around and see everything that was included.

Using the interactive map viewer

Curious individuals can check out the project’s map viewer. To use the map, you simply have to follow the link and click the «check it out!» button. Once the map loads, you’ll see a square-ish image that contains over 700,000 galaxies and other objects.

Once you load the map, the best way to view it is using the layers and filters in the top right corner. The first box contains views, including NIRCam RGB and several other views. The second box breaks up the image into tiles. These tiles are how the image was mapped, so you can see which instrument was used to capture each segment of the map.

For educational purposes, the third box is the one to use. These options outline the objects of interest. Clicking on them provides you with a catalog ID (which lets you search for those objects again later), the raw images taken of each object and additional data points like light wavelength.

The tools in the top left are used for search and configuration, like increasing the brightness and changing the hue to make some objects easier to view. With the controls, your best bet is to just look around and find all the cool stuff. At any point, you can reset all of the settings by refreshing the browser window.

How to access the data

The data is accessible in a couple of different ways. The COSMOS2025 project published three research papers on the data they collected. The first is a catalog of everything that was observed. The other two focused on the near infrared imaging and mid infrared imaging used to obtain the data.

You can obtain the data by filling out this form. Once done, you’ll be able to download the data. It’s available as a single, large download or you can download individual tiles if you prefer. There are more advanced instructions available from the COSMOS2025 project website if you need them, and more data available here if you want to download it.

You may notice that the majority of the map data is in the FITS file format. That’s an unusual file format that your standard Photoshop or image viewing application won’t be able to handle very well. Fortunately, NASA has a trustworthy list of FITS image viewers that you can choose from.

The data will also be used to help answer questions about the early universe, and all this data being freely available to researchers the world over will help with that.

Technologies

AI Trusted Less Than Social Media and Airlines, With Grok Placing Last, Survey Says

More Americans are concerned about the loss of personal interaction from AI than they are about potential job loss.

Google Gemini is the most trusted AI platform among its competition, but many people still have concerns about the technology, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index poll released Thursday.

In ACSI’s results, AI scored an overall customer satisfaction score of 73 on a scale of 0 to 100, which the authors noted was slightly below social media (74), airlines and mortgage lenders, but in line with energy utilities.

Of the five platforms mentioned in the survey, Google Gemini led with 76, followed by Microsoft Copilot (74), Claude and ChatGPT (both 73), and Grok and Perplexity (both 71). Meanwhile, TikTok (77) and YouTube (78) both scored better than the AI platforms.

Gemini is one of the most prolific AI services, with access via smart speakers, TVs, phones and computers, while most ChatGPT users access the AI tool via the ChatGPT website or mobile app, and Grok via social media platform X.

The ACSI poll found that 43% of respondents said reduced human-to-human interaction is their main concern, followed by job loss for future generations (37%) and their own job risk (31%), based on interviews with 2,711 US adults.

Baby Boomers were the most skeptical generation in the poll, with 35% saying they are very concerned about AI’s effects, compared to just 6% who view it extremely favorably.

Disconnect between AI adoption and perception

While platforms such as ChatGPT have up to 1 billion weekly users, there is still a disconnect between AI’s adoption and public perception of it, which is driven by concerns over privacy, the spread of misinformation and the loss of jobs.

«Consumers spent the last decade learning to distrust how social media platforms handle their data, and AI’s privacy scores suggest they’re carrying that skepticism forward,» said Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI.

21% reported an «extremely favorable» outlook toward AI, while an equal 21% said they are «very concerned about the consequences.»

These results were in line with another poll published by YouGov this week, which found that only 29% think the positive effects of AI outweigh the negative ones, while 36% think its net effects are negative.

It’s worth noting that more than half of the people interviewed (56%) had no recent experience with AI, but of the 44% who did, half of them use AI at least once a day, and the usage went up with people who earned over $100,000 a year.

Last month, an NBC poll suggested that AI was one of the least-liked things in America, but it was still more popular than the Democratic Party.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 18, #1042

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 18, No. 1,042.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features a fun purple category that’ll require you to spot certain beverage names. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Wow!

Green group hint: Plug it in.

Blue group hint: Cinderella team.

Purple group hint: Drink up.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Look at with awe.

Green group: Basic electricity terms.

Blue group: Unexpected winner.

Purple group: Starting with soda brands.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is look at with awe. The four answers are goggle, marvel, stare and wonder.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is basic electricity terms. The four answers are AC, DC, power and voltage.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is unexpected winner. The four answers are dark horse, long shot, sleeper and underdog.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starting with soda brands. The four answers are crushworthy, Fantagraphics, frescade and pepsinogen.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 18, #572

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 18, No. 572.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Hockey fans, today’s Connections: Sports Edition is for you. All four categories are hockey-related. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Fire it into the net!

Green group hint: Lord Stanley’s hardware.

Blue group hint: Where hockey teams play.

Purple group hint: Put the biscuit in the basket.